McAfee Bucks Glum Outlook

Enterprise business and international sales fueled McAfee's strong growth.

McAfee reported continued year-over-year growth in revenue and income in its final earnings report for 2007.
"In the fourth quarter, we delivered our strongest sale execution in three years," said Dave DeWalt, McAfee's chief executive officer in a conference call announcing the earnings.

Company revenue stood at $356.5 million, up 17 percent from 2006's fourth quarter revenues of $305.2 million. McAfee's consumer business grew 7 percent, while its corporate business-driven in part by a 112 percent year-over-year increase in sales of Total Protection for Endpoint-jumped 24 percent. According to the company, McAfee closed 453 deals of over $100,000 during the quarter, including 56 deals over $500,000 and 14 deals over $1 million.

On the acquisition front, it was a busy quarter for McAfee as well. The company made two major moves, acquiring ScanAlert for its Web site certification technology, and SafeBoot, which specializes in data encryption. Both acquisitions will pay dividends in 2008 and beyond, DeWalt said.
"We accelerated ePO (ePolicy Orchestrator) integration with SafeBoot and expect to ship in this quarter, Q1," DeWalt said.
McAfee also signed or extended 14 agreements, and launched 60 new or enhanced online partnerships, including international ventures in Brazil, Germany and the Netherlands. International revenues grew 24 percent to $171 million in the quarter.